Flying Leathernecks

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All Rise...

In discussing this "John Wayne meets Top Gun" war film, Judge Mark Van Hook overlooks the most important aspect: were the cheesecake airbrushings on the planes hot, or not?

The Charge

"Listen, some guys take a look at the world when they're young and they
don't like what they see. And they realize that some of us are gonna have to
fight for the rest of us from here on in. I'm a professional soldier, and I
don't mind saying I'm kinda proud of it."—Capt. Carl Griffin

Opening Statement

John Wayne (The Searchers) and
Robert Ryan (The Set-Up) headline
this very watchable WWII actioner from director Nicholas Ray, a story of honor
and discipline among fighter pilots. Presented in typically fine fashion by
Warner Brothers, the film trots out old war movie clichés by the truckload,
but does so respectably. Even though it doesn't transcend the genre, its
old-fashioned sense of heroism makes for a solidly entertaining ride.

Facts of the Case

Major Dan Kirby (John Wayne) is the new squadron leader assigned to VMF 247,
a.k.a. the Wildcats, a squadron recently relieved of their commanding officer.
Capt. Carl Griffin, a.k.a. "Griff" (Robert Ryan) expected to be next
in line for the job, but the former commander refused to recommend him because
of his lack of leadership skills and his soft heart, which compromise his
ability to send men to die when it's necessary.

When Kirby arrives, he finds the squadron lacking in discipline, a problem
he quickly seeks to remedy. His no-nonsense attitude immediately makes him
unpopular with the group, most of whom wish Griff had taken command. But as
they'll soon find out, it takes more than just a good nature to be a good
leader, and wars are won not by likeable guys but by those willing to sacrifice
for the greater good.

The Evidence

One of the great things about exploring older genre films is that it shows
where some of the clichés used in recent films have come from. When
watching Flying Leathernecks, for example, we discover the blueprint for
Top Gun (which, although by no means
"recent," remains a constant favorite of college students everywhere)
and other films of its type. Oh sure, they'll slap a fresh coat of paint on it
with more technically-advanced flying sequences and the like, but the
testosterone-fueled drama is the same as it ever was.

As old-fashioned war flicks go, Flying Leathernecks is standard
stuff, with most of the drama derived from the philosophical differences between
a commander and his subordinates. It's decidedly generic material for great
auteur Nicholas Ray, director of masterpieces Rebel Without a Cause and In a Lonely
Place, and cult oddities like Johnny Guitar. Perhaps its relatively
high pedigree and star power is why the whole thing plays so well—with one
major exception.

The exception is the combat sequences, which are edited using a mix of
staged battle scenes and actual World War II footage. Inserting this real
footage is an interesting idea in theory, as it should make for a more realistic
portrayal of combat. But the real footage is of inferior technical quality, so
the transitions between the two are awkward and take the viewer right out of the
film. For example, in one shot you'll see John Wayne sitting in a cockpit and
hear gunshot sounds, followed by a cut to actual footage of a plane being hit by
gunfire. Because the quality of the real footage is so plainly below that of the
Wayne footage, the effect comes off as obvious and cheesy. This must have caused
a real quandary for Warner Brothers in mastering the DVD, because the better you
make the staged footage look (it's impossible to clean up the stock footage, as
it's already been transferred once), the bigger the disparity, and the cheaper
the effect looks.

Thankfully, the ground scenes play significantly better, despite the
clichéd feeling of the script. Wayne fares especially well in his scenes as
the tough-as-nails Major, a man who has seen too much of war and hates having to
send men to die, but knows that it has to be done in order to win the war. Wayne
also gets to show his tender side in the stateside scenes with his wife (Janis
Carter) and son, and shows that despite his typecasting in typical genre fare,
he actually had quite a bit of range as an actor. Ryan doesn't make quite as
strong an impression, but the scenes in which his ideology clashes with Wayne's
have real bite. The rest of the squadron is filled out by recognizable character
actors, who all lend credible (if not exemplary) support to the stars, but the
show belongs to Wayne and Ryan.

Flying Leathernecks was the seventh film directed by Nicholas Ray,
the director known best for bringing young James Dean to the screen in Rebel
Without A Cause four years later. He had already directed one masterpiece by
this point (In a Lonely Place was made just a year earlier); he obviously
knew his way around a camera, which is why the overall ordinariness of
Leathernecks is disappointing. It's purely standard war filmmaking that
entertains without captivating, and when the director is such an extraordinary
talent, even a moderately successful genre entry seems beneath his
capabilities.

Warner's DVD of Flying Leathernecks is a featureless affair,
presented in a solid full-frame transfer. As stated previously, the major
problem with the transfer is that it looks too good, highlighting an
obvious disparity between the staged and authentic scenes. Colors in the former
are bright and vibrant with little bleeding, while the authentic WWII footage
looks washed-out and beaten up. It is a lose-lose situation, because the demand
for first-rate transfers of classic films is so high that Warner had no choice
but to make the staged footage look as good as possible.

The disc's audio is the usual mono track and, as has become standard for
Warner releases, sounds crisp and free of background noise. Subtitles are
offered in English, French and Spanish.

Closing Statement

Fans of old-school war flicks should find much to enjoy here. It's the kind
of picture John Wayne and Nicholas Ray could probably do in their sleep, but the
chemistry between Wayne and Robert Ryan gives it the pedigree it needs to make
it a worthy purchase for the war film completist.